The latest cancer news

Several important stories came out of the ASCO conference in Chicago this week:

• Taking tamoxifen for 10 rather than five years halves the risk of women dying from the most common kind of breast cancer, according to our clinical trial. The Daily Mail covered the story, and our press release has more detail.

• A low-cost vinegar-based screening test cut cervical cancer rates among Indian women by nearly a third. The Telegraph and Forbes both have more info.

• On the treatment front for cervical cancer, a drug called bevacizumab was shown to prolong survival in women with advanced disease. Medscape has more detail.

• There was a lot of buzz at the conference about a new class of cancer drugs called PD-1 inhibitors, which ‘unmask’ tumours that are invisible to the immune system. We wrote about these drugs’ early promise at last year’s conference, and it seems excitement is continuing to build. Here are our picks of the coverage: New Scientist, the New York Times, and NHS Choices.

• And finally on the ASCO front, our nurses team wrote from Chicago about personalised medicine, clinical trials for the elderly, and helping cancer patients to stop smoking.

There were plenty of other stories outside the conference walls:

• Rather unexpectedly, Michael Douglas triggered a lot of coverage about the link between oral sex and throat cancer. This Independent piece is our pick of the print coverage, and our expert was interviewed on the Today programme. This Guardian Q&A is also great.

• Anxiety is a greater risk than depression for long-term cancer survivors, according to research published this week. Read our news story for more info.

• NICE issued landmark guidance recommending that licensed nicotine-containing products can be used to help people cut down on the amount they smoke. Here’s our news story.

• Our scientists have found a molecular ‘bullseye’ for a rare form of melanoma, opening up opportunities for new targeted treatment. Here’s our press release.
• New figures released by Macmillan hit the headlines (here’s the BBC’s take), showing that nearly half of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives. The good news is that rates are increasing because we’re living longer, and survival rates have been on the up too.

• But in a reminder that cancer’s been with us since prehistoric times, research in PLOS ONE showed that Neanderthals got tumours too, as reported here by the BBC.

• Cancer rates in Japan aren’t expected to rise in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear incident, according to a new UN report.

And finally

• We joined leading medical and research centres around the world this week to launch an ambitious project that will allow the sharing of vast amounts of genetic and clinical information. The Guardian and Nature have more detail about this exciting endeavour.

Our weekly news digest

Yesterday was World No Tobacco Day, and there were several tobacco stories this week:

• Ireland is to become the first EU country to ban branding on cigarette packets, following in Australia’s footsteps. Our news story and the Telegraph have more detail.

• In a scathing article, the Lancet criticised the “deplorable absence” of any decision on standardised tobacco packaging in this year’s Queen’s speech. We too urge the UK government to respond as soon as possible and show its support for plain, standardised packs.

• Research this week contradicted the tobacco industry, and showed that standardised tobacco packaging hasn’t caused Australian shop staff any problems in serving customers. The press release has more info.

And in other news:

• The number of patients taking part in clinical trials in England has trebled in five years, according to the BBC.

• Our Drug Development Office launched a trial for a potential new drug to block the energy supply of cancer cells. The Northern Echo covered the research.

• New figures show that one quarter of cancer cases are diagnosed an early stage in Scotland.

• This intriguing story in the Daily Telegraph suggests that children of parents who live to a ripe old age have a lower risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. In many ways this isn’t surprising, as we know that our genetic makeup can play a role in cancer risk, as well as lifestyle.  

And finally

• Cancer researchers and clinicians from around the world are gathering in Chicago this weekend at the world’s largest cancer conference, hosted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Look out for our reports about the hot topics from the meeting next week. And you can follow the #ASCO13 hashtag on Twitter.

The latest cancer news

• Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer, after she learnt she carried the BRCA1 gene, resulted in blanket coverage across the media this week. You can read about her reasons for undergoing the surgery in this courageous New York Times piece. We also answered some of the frequently asked questions about inherited breast cancer risk and the BRCA1 gene. 

• We spotted several excellent comment pieces in response to Ms Jolie’s news. She’d “done something extraordinary”, according to Hadley Freeman in the Guardian, a sentiment broadly echoed by Lisa Markwell in the Independent, who has had breast cancer herself.

• The Guardian’s data blog took a look at the bigger picture of breast cancer worldwide.

• We also published this moving article about a personal experience of being told you have the BRCA1 gene.

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The latest cancer news

• Wednesday was a sad day for public health. The worrying rumours we’d heard last week – that the government had scrapped plans to introduce plain, standardised tobacco packaging in the Queen’s speech – turned out to be true. This BBC article has more info. We wrote about why this is a blow in the fight against cancer.
• Our scientists found that genetic ‘fine tuners’ known as microRNAs control the body’s own attack against breast cancer. Read more in our press release
• US scientists uncovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are often more likely to develop aggressive tumours that spread. This NewsWise article has more info.
• Also across the pond, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine identified a group of proteins that are faulty in about one-fifth of all human cancers. Science Daily covered the story.

• Pharmaceutical companies agreed a substantial discount on the cost of cervical cancer vaccines for the developing world. The New York Times and the Guardian have more detail.

And finally

• We were dismayed this week by several headlines like this: “Sun’s blood pressure benefits may outdo cancer risks”. The study in question only looked at the blood pressure of 24 volunteers who sat beneath tanning lamps. It didn’t directly look at skin cancer risk and also hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. Overexposure to UV radiation from the sun or sunbeds is the main cause of skin cancer, so we advise everyone to enjoy the sun safely.

Catch up on the latest cancer news

• For those who don’t know why we want the Government to legislate for plain standardised tobacco packaging, read this excellent Lancet Oncology article.
• We want to give children one less reason to start smoking but interestingly, our research this week showed that standardising cigarette packs also makes them less appealing to existing smokers (press release).
• Some Welsh cancer patients aren’t starting their treatment within government target times. The BBC has more detail.

• The Telegraph published an interesting article about using computers to choose cancer treatments. It’s not the stuff of science fiction, as doctors already use computer programmes to help identify the most suitable treatments for their patients.

• In another sci-fi-like story, US scientists have used radioactive bacteria to treat mice with pancreatic cancer. It’s intriguing work but as this Nature article says, there are several crucial questions that need answering before this research could be harnessed for humans.

• A small but interesting study we funded showed that women are often surprised that breast screening can lead to ‘overdiagnosis’ of cancer, but would rather go for screening than take the risk of missing a cancer that could be treated. Here’s our press release.

• The ‘breast cancer’ drug, Herceptin, could be effective in around two per cent of lung cancers, according to preliminary research reported here.

• An innovative drug development fund, provided in part by our commercial company Cancer Research Technology, backed its first major project this week. Here’s our press release, and we wrote in more detail about the science behind the promising compounds being developed – ‘MPS1 inhibitors’.

• According to a new analysis, rising cancer rates are threatening to ‘overwhelm’ Latin American countries. The BBC has this take.

• The Guardian wrote a fascinating piece about gene patenting and what they describe as “the last-ditch battle over who owns the rights to our DNA”.

• And the New York Times had a great article about how whole genome DNA sequencing will one day become the norm across health care, and the current “arms race” between US institutions to invest in DNA sequencing technologies.

• This article from the American Cancer Society is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how to distinguish between good quality and questionable quality medical research.
• The BBC’s Robert Peston looked at issues around lung cancer funding.

And finally

• We recently described how a new blood test could track tumours as they grow and evolve in the body. Picking up this theme, our blogger Dr Kat Arney has looked into this exciting new area in more depth in an Opinion piece for Al Jazeera English. 

Read about cancer news from the past week

• Lots of tobacco news this week. On Monday we learnt that smokefree legislation has been linked to a drop in emergency hospital admissions from asthma. Here’s our news story.

• In parliament on Tuesday, the government confirmed that it’s taking a “careful look” at all the evidence coming out of the consultation on standardised packaging on tobacco products (news story). Let’s hope they make the right decision and give children one less reason to start smoking.

• On Wednesday, we had a timely reminder of tobacco industry tactics. The Advertising Standards Agency ruled that a series of ads from Japan Tobacco International which made claims that cannot be substantiated had breached the UK advertising code. The Guardian has more info, and you can read our view of these tactics here.

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